2023-11-24 13:11:54
The conservation process of a 1634 painting, presenting the portrait of an aristocrat, revealed that Photoshop retouching was not new, whereas a 19th century restorer would have taken the liberty of modifying the face according to his preferences.
“You think Kylie Jenner’s penchant for fuller lips reflects a very modern beauty phenomenon? Think again!” the non-profit English Heritage wrote on Friday about The Guardian.
It was in the hands of a restorer, somewhere between the 17th and 19th centuries, that the portrait in question would have undergone alterations to soften the features of the noblewoman Diana Cecil, by adding “fuller lips and a lower hairline,” reported the non-governmental organization.
Think Kylie Jenner’s penchant for fuller lips reflects a very modern beauty phenomenon? Think again! ????
After careful conservation, our experts discovered that a 19th-century restorer had given Diana Cecil the Hollywood treatment, including plumper lips and a lower hairline. ???? pic.twitter.com/DT5i2NskyZ
— English Heritage (@EnglishHeritage) November 24, 2023
The woman, who lived between the years 1596 to 1654, was the great-granddaughter of Willian Cecil, a close friend of Queen Elizabeth I, the British newspaper said.
But it was only by triggering the conservation process of the work that the collections restorer, Alice Tate-Harte, would have discovered with surprise the true face of the young woman under a yellowing layer of old varnish.
“Finding out that Diana’s features had been so altered was certainly a surprise. Although the original reason for overpainting could have been to cover damage […] the restaurateur certainly added his own preferences to “soften” his face,” she emphasized.
The painting, created in 1634 by the artist Cornelius Johnson, was thus able to find its own face, and should be presented on November 30 at the neoclassical Kenwood villa in London.
“As a modern society with access to digital beauty filters and artificial intelligence technology, we might think we are more familiar than most times with the temptation to ‘perfect’ our appearance, but this work […] has shown that this is not a new phenomenon,” concluded Louise Cooling, curator of English Heritage at Kenwood.
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